The Ninja Encounter
The Ninja Encounter is a three-part episode in the second season of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Synopsis Three teens from nearby Stone Canyon High School come to Angel Grove for a ninja tournament and find themselves targeted for recruitment by Lord Zedd, learning the Power Rangers' secret identities and becoming friends with them in the process. Plot Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy meet Rocky, Adam, and Aisha and their teacher Hank Anderson after rescuing his baby son, Jacob from a runaway stroller. Later that week, the rangers watched the newcomers win a ninja tournament against a team of undefeated, yet arrogant champions, who caused the stroller incident. Lord Zedd was interested in recruiting the champions because of their evil qualities, but when he learned that the other side won the tournament, he was forced to recruit them instead. He sent Goldar and a platoon of putties to kidnap the three kids and Mr. Anderson. Tommy, Kimberly, and Billy tried to save them, but were unsuccessful. Afterwards, the rangers had to balance rescuing the four civilians with saving Angel Grove from two monsters. They managed to defeat the monsters and save the hostages at the very last second, but as Billy was wrestling with Zedd's evil snake, he was severely weakened. Tommy and Kimberly had to take Billy's helmet off for him to avoid suffocating. However, unbeknownst to them, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha were watching on from the entrance to the cave, and inadvertently learned the identities of the Power Rangers. Rocky, Adam and Aisha are taken to the Command Center. Having found them to be of good character and due to their bravery, Zordon decides to trust the three with the secret of the Rangers' identities. Rocky, Adam, and Aisha agree, taking a vow to never reveal what they've learned, and they reunite with their new friends.. Cast *Jason David Frank as Tommy Oliver (Mighty Morphin White Ranger) *Austin St. John as Jason Lee Scott (Mighty Morphin Red Ranger) (Archive Footage Only) **Paul F. Rosenthal as Jason Lee Scott (Red Ranger) (Morphed Dialogue) *Thuy Trang as Trini Kwan (Mighty Morphin Yellow Ranger) (Archive Footage Only) **Judy as Trini Kwan (Yellow Ranger) (Morphed Dialogue) *Walter Jones as Zack Taylor (Mighty Morphin Black Ranger) (Archive Footage Only) **Joel Rogers as Zack Taylor (Black Ranger) (Morphed Dialogue) *David Yost as Billy Cranston (Mighty Morphin Blue Ranger) *Amy Jo Johnson as Kimberly Ann Hart (Mighty Morphin Pink Ranger) *Steve Cardenas as Rocky DeSantos *Karan Ashley as Aisha Campbell *Johnny Yong Bosch as Adam Park *Paul Schrier as Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier *Jason Narvy as Eugene "Skull" Skullovitch *Timothy Guest as Mr. Hank Anderson *Jacob Frank as Jacob Anderson *David Fielding as Zordon (face) **Robert L. Manahan as Zordon (voice) *Romy J. Sharf as Alpha 5 **Richard Steven Horvitz as Alpha 5 (voice) (as Richard Wood) *Ed Neil as Lord Zedd **Robert Axelrod as Lord Zedd (voice) *Danny Wayne Stallcup as Goldar **Kerrigan Mahan as Goldar (voice) (as Ryan O'Flannigan) *Steve Kramer as Hatchasaurus (voice) *Dave Mallow as Terror Blossom (voice) Errors *At the very beginning of Part 1, Jason & Trini's stand-in's faces can be seen briefly from the side and front respectively. *In Part 2, before Tommy kicks the Hatchasaurus, he asks where he went, even though he was facing the monster before asking the question. *In Part 3, Kimberly calls Billy and Tommy by name in front of Rocky, Adam, and Aisha before Billy is unmasked, though she may not have been aware they were behind her. *At some points during the battle between the Thunder Megazord and Hatchasaurus in Part 2, footage of the Dino Megazord can be seen, as it was reused from Season 1. In one shot, the full Megazord is clearly visible for several seconds; near the end of the battle, the Megazord's hand is shown grasping the original Power Sword, before cutting to a shot of the Thunder Megazord and Thunder Saber. *In Part 2, Zordon told Tommy to destroy Cardiotron, but that was never shown. Notes *The song featured in the beginning of Part 1 is entitled "She's Got the Answers". It was written by Ron Wasserman and featured in "Sweet Valley High", another Saban-produced show. *Jacob Anderson is played by Jacob Frank, Jason David Frank's first child from his first marriage. *Rocky, Adam, and Aisha would wear the same outfits from this episode while showing Alpha a pre-recorded message of them wishing him a merry Christmas in Alpha's Magical Christmas. *Part 1 of this story is the first episode which employs no Sentai footage, as well as being the first in which none of the Rangers appear morphed. *First appearance of Rocky, Adam, and Aisha, who become the first people to learn the Rangers identities' and who would assist the Rangers behind the scenes before going on to replace Jason, Zack and Trini as the Red, Black, and Yellow Rangers respectively. *First episode to use archive footage of Jason, Zack, and Trini from previous episodes to hide the fact that their actors had already left the show before proper departure scenes could be filmed. Among the footage used is mainly "Two Heads are Better than One", recognizable from Zack's flattop, and some from "The Song of Guitardo", recognizable from the appearance of Kimberly's guitar. *To match the archive footage, Billy wears his older glasses while Tommy wears green clothes despite now being the White Ranger. He also tied his hair into a ponytail before teleporting to the Command Center. *In some scenes, stand-in actors are used in place of Austin St. John, Thuy Trang, and Walter Jones, and they are always shown from the back. *The Terror Blossom conjures up the Hatchasaurus from "Birds of a Feather". Footage of the giant-sized battle is also drawn from that episode. *Hatchasaurus is able to speak in this episode, while it couldn't in its previous appearance. *For the second time, the Rangers neglect to destroy the Hatchasaurus's Cardiotron in their first engagement. *The Hatchasaurus is the first monster to take a charged slash from the Thunder Saber and survive. *In earlier broadcasts of Part 3, the song "Baby Sittin' Boogie" by Buzz Clifford was featured during the scene in which Bulk and Skull attempted to change the baby's diaper. For later broadcasts (as well as the DVD, iTunes, and Netflix versions), it's replaced with Bulk and Skull's background music presumably for copyright reasons. *Bulk and Skull have been wanting to discover the identities of the Rangers the whole season, yet don't hatch any plan to do so in these episodes. However, Adam, Rocky and Aisha accidentally learn who the Power Rangers really are in their first appearance in the series. See Also (Hatchasaurus footage) (Terror Blossom Footage & Zord Battle) (First Yellow Ranger replacement) (First Red Ranger replacement) (First Female Yellow Ranger replacement) Category:Mighty Morphin 2 Category:Episode Category:Multi-Part Episode